


Don't Let This One Slip Through Your Fingers

by ereshai



Series: Marvel Shipping Games [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-29
Updated: 2014-09-29
Packaged: 2018-02-19 05:25:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2376404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ereshai/pseuds/ereshai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nick Fury doesn't do regret</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Let This One Slip Through Your Fingers

**Author's Note:**

> For the Marvel Shipping Games bonus round 2 prompt: Fury/Maria Hill, regret

Nick Fury doesn't do regret.

He has no time for it, not when the fate of the world is at stake. When your only possible choices are bad and worse, you stop thinking of what might have been. He has (had, dammit) a covert agency to run; there's no room for second-guessing himself.

The whole 'no regrets' things extends to his personal life, too. He'd let opportunities slip through his fingers - mostly on purpose, but sometimes he had just been too busy to notice them disappearing (see: the fate of the world). It's not like he doesn't have friends; family, too, if it comes down to it. Natasha may not be his blood, but she's like a daughter to him. That makes Barton his son, but he'll take him, smart mouth and all. All of the agents that had made up his inner circle - he had trusted them with his life, and that had more than made up for the empty apartment waiting for him at the end of the day. Used to be waiting for him; being dead makes it hard to maintain a permanent address.

He had given so much to SHIELD, only to have it collapse out from under him, rotten to the core. Still, he's satisfied he'd done everything he could to salvage it before it finally ended. He knows Coulson will rebuild, bring their vision of what SHIELD should be to life. That's why he had been able to walk away, so he could do the things that he couldn't as Director of SHIELD.

No, he doesn't do regret. 

So why does he keep picking up the phone and dialing a number he shouldn't even have? He never completes the call, but it gets harder every time. He's not even sure Maria would talk to him. He knows he doesn't need to check up on her; he trusts her more than any other person alive. She'd gone along with his long-range plan, flaws and all, even though it had meant she wouldn't be the Director of the new and improved SHIELD. He knows she wanted – still wants - that, deserves that; she's probably curses his name every time she has to deal with another government committee. Or Stark.

He misses having her around, calling him on his shit; picking apart his plans and putting them back together better than they were. He misses her backing him up, taking care of details so he can focus on the big picture. He misses the stubborn set of her chin when faced with a challenge, and the sparkle in her eyes when she grinds the aforementioned challenge into dust.

He never used to be such a sappy motherfucker.

It's not regret that has him standing in front of her apartment door. Things gotta happen in their own time, as his mother used to say. He had respected her too much to jeopardize her SHIELD career with accusations of favoritism, so he'd shoved aside any impulse he'd had to pursue her while they were working together. Even now, he's not sure if she'll be interested in anything more than a professional relationship.

He is sure he'll regret it if he doesn't try to find out.

He knocks on the door.


End file.
